Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume III)

by Sarah J. Stone

  Arryn stole a glance at May. She nodded encouragement to him. Mattox and Lyric listened from across the room.

  “Well, sir,” Arryn began, “you see, it was my little sister Hazel he rescued from the Midnight.”

  Rex’s head shot up. “Your sister!”

  “Yes, sir. My daddy wanted me to bring you a personal message thanking you on behalf of all of us for what Azer did. I know he isn’t here. It’s just a personal message from my family to yours. We never thought we’d get Hazel back. We never got anybody back after the Midnight took them, and here she comes home one night just as good as new. She was shaken up. Don’t get me wrong, but she couldn’t stop talking about Azer Mackenzie. Azer Mackenzie is like some kind of guardian angel to her. You don’t know how many times my family has blessed his name since she came home.”

  Rex blinked at him. He swallowed hard. He couldn’t speak above a whisper. “Thank you. I never knew. We heard the story, but I never expected to meet someone so close to the girl he saved.”

  “She’s just a little thing, you know?” Arryn’s voice cracked with emotion. “She’s just little. I hate to think what they did to her in that ring, and he saved her. I can’t thank you enough for what he did. I only wish I could thank him in person.”

  He grasped Rex’s hand, and the old man fought back tears. “I’m so sorry for everything those devils have done to your people. I’m proud it could be Azer who did something to help your sister. I wish he was here to listen to this. I wish…” He broke down, and tears streamed down his cheeks. “I wish I could see him again, just once.”

  May touched a tear out the corner of her eye. Across the room, Lyric hid her face against Mattox’s chest and sobbed.

  Rex covered Arryn’s hands with his own. “Thank you, son. Thank you for coming here today. You don’t know how it does my old heart good. It’s good to know Azer is out there somewhere, even if we can’t be with him.”

  “He’s out there, all right,” Arryn told him. “He’s doing good somewhere. He’s spreading his goodness all around the world where it’s needed most. I’m certain of that.”

  Rex sniffed back tears. “I want your family and our family to be forever connected. Do you hear? You tell your daddy that. You tell him he’ll always have a friend in the Mackenzies, no matter what.”

  Arryn nodded. “I’ll sure tell him. All of us would do anything for your family.”

  Rex stood up, and Arryn joined him. “God bless you, son. I hope your mission here meets with success. You’re gonna find a lot of people on Bruins’ Peak who want to help your people any way we can. We want to support you and protect you.”

  “Thank you, sir. I’m meeting all kinds of the best people here.”

  Mattox stepped forward. “Give me your hand on it, Arryn. I heard from Brody about this big meeting coming up, and you can count on me to back you. We’ll bind our people together in an alliance that will stand the test of time.”

  “Thank you, sir. I can’t ask for more than that.”

  May gave Lyric a hug and drove away with Arryn. She blinked back tears while she drove back the way she came. “That was amazing. That was the best news the Mackenzie family has gotten in a long time.”

  “It’s true. Saving Hazel was the greatest gift anyone could give us.”

  She turned a corner, and Mackenzie Homestead slipped out of sight behind the trees. May pulled over to the roadside and switched off the motor. Arryn’s eyes popped. “What are you doing?”

  She didn’t answer. She ravaged his mouth in all her monstrous desire. She chewed his lips off and slithered her tongue inside. In seconds, they fell into each other’s arms. That invisible barrier vaporized to nothing. She would have him or die. Nothing could stop her.

  Nothing stopped him, either. The moment their lips met, one meaty paw cupped her breast. He found the taut nipple hidden under her shirt. He tickled it to a hard prick. She whined into his mouth, and flames of sweet juicy pleasure quivered up her insides.

  He didn’t hold back. He groped up her chest to her neckline and yanked it down over her bra. Her breast tumbled out into his hand, and he shoved it into his mouth. Oh, sweet Jesus! That excited her more than anything. She crawled across the seat to join him. She crammed her breast into his mouth in aching desire. His teeth hurt on her sensitive flesh, but she couldn’t get enough.

  He fought free to kiss her again. His breath sizzled in her face. “Come back to the cottage with me. I want you right now.”

  She battled her mounting excitement to think. “I have to take the truck back. They would worry if it disappeared.”

  He leaned back. “Then go for it. I can’t do this anymore. I need you now.”

  She needed him, too. She didn’t want to go another day without him as her chosen mate. She hopped off his lap and grabbed the wheel. She had to control herself driving home. She parked the truck in the shed. “Stay here while I take the ink cartridge inside.”

  He seized her behind the neck to maul her mouth again. “Don’t tell him. Don’t tell anybody where you’re going.”

  She swung the door open. “I won’t. I’ll be right back.”

  She dashed up the steps and down the hall to Silas’s bedroom. He wasn’t there, so she set the ink cartridge on his desk and beat it. She didn’t exhale until she got back to the shed. Arryn sat on the fender. He stood when he saw her coming. He took her hand, and they set off into the woods without a word.

  May scanned MacAllister Homestead on all sides, but no one saw them—not until she turned down the forest path leading up the hill to the MacAllister-Dunlap border. She knew that path better than anybody, but the instant she set foot on it, she caught a curious scent. She would recognize that scent anywhere, and all the tiny hairs stood up on the back of her neck.

  Shaw appeared from behind a tree and straddled the path. He didn’t look at Arryn’s hand tucked into May’s grasp. He only had eyes for Arryn. “Didn’t I tell you what would happen if you came back here?”

  Arryn walked right up to him and tried to push past. “Get out of my way. You don’t have the balls to back up your toothless threats.”

  Shaw slammed both palms against Arryn’s chest and sent him stumbling backward. “You made a bid mistake coming back here, and now you’re going to pay the price. Go back to the house, May. I’ll handle this.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” May replied, “and neither is Arryn. You don’t have any authority in this tribe, Shaw. You’re a bully and a prick. One of these days, someone stronger than you is gonna teach you that.”

  Shaw didn’t listen to her. He growled in Arryn’s face. “You want to see me back up my toothless threats? Come on. Come and see what I can do with my teeth.”

  He didn’t wait for Arryn to react. He surged forward, and a roar tore out of his throat. He put out his arms to grab Arryn’s neck. May screamed out, “No!” but it was too late. Shaw’s lips rolled back from his gaping mouth, and his shoulders blew up to a huge size.

  Arryn didn’t launch, though. He took a step back and aimed a brutal kick at Shaw rushing him. He planted his heel in the center of Shaw’s sternum. The big Bruin sailed backward just as fast as he rocketed forward a second before. He landed square on his back in the dirt. His face folded back down over his mouth. He coughed and wheezed and contorted over onto his side. He hugged his stomach and groaned.

  May blinked down at him. She could barely believe what she’d just seen. Arryn flattened him with one blow. That was the end of the great Shaw Cunningham. Not only did he back down from Silas, but now Arryn bested him without fighting.

  May’s heart soared. So it was all true. Silas could win. He could beat Shaw and become Alpha. All Silas’s scheming and planning bore fruit, and he would reap the benefits for the sake of the whole tribe.

  Arryn strolled up to Shaw and squatted down next to him. He murmured into his ear, “We’re going now. You stay there on the ground until we’re gone. I’ll be watching to make sure you don’t try to follow us
or interfere with us. Don’t come at me like that again if you want to live.”

  He straightened, took May’s hand, and set off up the hill like he knew the mountain of old. He followed the path all the way to the summit. When he found the top line running down Bruins’ Peak, he glanced up and down it before he hiked on an unerring line toward the cabin. He never had to ask May for directions once.

  She walked at his side the whole way without a word. She was on her way to the rest of her life, whatever that turned out to be, but she hesitated when the cottage came in sight. He kept moving forward until her arm stretched tight to stop him.

  He cocked his head to one side. “You okay?”

  She stared at the cottage. She wasn’t expecting this, but she should have. She knew about this cottage, and she knew he was staying here. Why did she hold back now? His broad shoulders cut off her line of sight. She had nowhere to look but up at him.

  He eased against her, and one arm supported her behind her back. He tilted her back to kiss her. That mind-blowing intoxication swept all her thoughts away, but she didn’t want to go in there just yet. She couldn’t deny what would happen in there. She wanted it, but she wanted more to savor the anticipation. She would only be a single young girl a few more minutes. Her life would change forever, and she wanted to make it linger.

  He found her mouth, and their tongues played their same luscious weaving game, but she didn’t feel that. She saw only his eyes and the depth of meaning in them. His being invited her to embrace the future. His eyes and his skin answered all her questions. They banished every doubt from her mind.

  The tiny wrinkles around his eyes quivered. He didn’t understand why she hung back. She had to soothe those doubts in him, to make him happy in what was about to happen. She rose on her tiptoes to greet his kiss, and his rock solid body held her close.

  He swished her back and forth off the ground. She could kiss him forever and love every minute of it. His deep brown hands transformed her pearly flesh into something radiant and molten hot. She shone happiness and contentment to the four points of the compass. She twinkled like a star from that mountaintop. All of Bruin kind could see her joy and belonging in him.

  His body seethed with captive power. He made her small and helpless and fragile in his hands. He loomed over her, dark and massive. Her pulse raced in her chest, and her blood fizzed behind her eyes. Every nerve strained for him.

  He gave her breast one squeeze and set her on her feet. He glared into the woods and shook his head. “Not like this. We’re not doing it like this for the very first time.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He tugged her forward. “You want to do it in the woods? We can do it in the woods as many times as you want, but right now we’re doing it in a real bed. We’re doing it in a real house with four walls around us and a roof over our heads. I couldn’t live with myself if I did it any other way.”

  49. Chapter 10

  Arryn shut the cottage door. May gazed down at the bed. “It’s very nice.”

  “Yes, it is. The Dunlaps are really nice people.”

  “Is Jace better now?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him. Him and Harmony and Aiken aren’t around the house anymore. I don’t know where they are or what they’re doing.” He sat down on the bed, but she made no move to come toward him.

  His blood pounded in his brain, in his chest, between his legs. He had to do this. He had to take May as his mate, and he had to do it right now. He couldn’t survive otherwise. “Come here.”

  She blinked and shook the hair off her forehead. She sat down next to him. If she felt the same way he did, she didn’t show it. Was she as scared as he was? What if he screwed this up and she ran away? What if she changed her mind about him?

  Her languid blue eyes drifted to his face. Arryn took a deep sniff of her scent. That scent grounded him. It told him all he needed to know about the job he had to do. It drowned his mind in every mysterious fantasy he ever had about finding his mate. Now he had her. He had her right here, sitting on his bed. They were alone in the middle of nowhere.

  She startled him out of his skin when she slipped her delicate white hand over his leg. She rested her slender fingers over his thigh. Her fingertips tucked between his legs and touched the seam of his pants. An aching stab crushed his heart. His blood rushed to his crotch. What was she doing to him?

  Before he could move, she glided her tiny hand up his thigh to the bulge in his pants. Her eyes hypnotized him in her pale face, but she didn’t turn away. She never blushed at touching him like that. She prodded his cock behind his fly and moved in to kiss him.

  He reeled in astonishment. He would have collapsed, but her kiss welded him to her so he couldn’t fall away. She kissed him harder. Her tongue demanded he respond. Those lips commanded his arms to surrounded her, even when he didn’t mean to do it himself. He had to. He belonged to her.

  She pressed his erection between her expert fingers. It was all hers. She could do what she liked with it, and she knew it. She followed its length where it stuck out sideways under his pants. She dallied around its swollen head and massaged it to raging brutality.

  Arryn’s breath hitched in his throat. He gasped out loud, but he couldn’t drag his eyes away from her steady gaze. She held him entranced. Holy God! What was happening to him? He thought he was taking her back to his place to take her for his mate. Now she did it to him instead. She took him for herself. She wanted him, and she got him.

  He couldn’t stand this. He clapped one hand over hers and jammed it over his cock. He flexed his hips forward to rub himself against her hand. May released his mouth with a laugh. “Do you like that?”

  Arryn shut his eyes against the intensity. “God! Don’t stop! That feels so good when you do that.”

  She dug her hand out from under his. She stopped when he just begged her not to. What kind of enchantress was she? What kind of sadistic devil did he get himself attached to? She rose off the bed. She spread her wings and elevated in front of him. Her witchy eyes bored into his mind. He would gladly sell everything he valued, including his mortal soul, to have her, to give himself to her, to be owned by her and handled by her forever.

  She stroked up his chest to his shoulders. She gave him one little peck on the lips. His guts twisted in knots, he needed her so bad. His cock throbbed, and his nuts ached for release. She pushed him back on the bed and knelt over him in all her glowing splendor. The sun shining through the windows set her hair on fire. It burnished her perfect skin until he could see every pulsing blood vessel underneath.

  Her lips infected him with their sweet desire. She kissed down his neck to his shirt. She rubbed her golden head all over his chest and down his stomach. She nuzzled her face into his crotch until he moaned out loud. The instant she got a reaction out of him, she stopped.

  She towered above him and studied his tortured response. She pushed his hands away when he tried to touch her. She pinned his wrists to the bed. He relaxed back, but tension racked his every fiber. He couldn’t stand this much longer.

  She burrowed her cool fingers under his shirt and tickled up his ribs. She kissed his nipples and bit the skin along his sides. Her tongue wound into his navel, and she smeared a trail of saliva down to his belt.

  He couldn’t lie still for that kind of treatment. He grabbed two handfuls of her hair and followed her up and down his chest and stomach. “Oh, God, baby! What are you doing to me?”

  She growled into his skin. “So black! So fine and black and good. You taste so good. You can’t imagine how I’ve dreamed of this moment. I want to taste you all over.”

  Just when he thought he would lose his mind, she stood up. She took her position next to the bed. Her hair swept around her face when she bent forward to unbutton his pants. She gave him a wicked smile when he looked at her. He couldn’t watch this. He had to close his eyes and turn his head aside.

  Nothing could stop her. She inched his pants down his hips and shiv
ered them over his legs. She peeled the shirt over his head. Her hands trailed over his naked body to lay him out where she wanted him.

  Her fingers lifted off him and left him cold and alone. He stole a peek at her and almost died and went to heaven. The sun cast an angelic halo around her. She pushed the frilly shoulders of her blouse down to her armpits. She smiled at him while she eased them down to expose her immaculate breasts to the sun’s blessed light.

  She kicked off her tights and crawled back on top of him. She rocked back and forth on all fours above him. He could only stare in wide-eyed awe. He never saw anything so beautiful, so erotic and enthralling. She never took her smoldering eyes off his face. She knew exactly what she was doing.

  Her cruel little fingers enclosed his pulsating cock. She stroked along its length to bring the whimpering moans to his lips. Man, she could make him scream if this kept up. She caressed him faster. He gasped and panted. He would blow his lid if she didn’t stop soon.

  She sank lower on top of him. Her delicious little nipples grazed his chest and unleashed the demon penned up inside him. He worshipped her breasts with both hands. He pinched her nipples and guided them into his mouth.

  She didn’t fight him. She didn’t push him down now. Her pendulous globes masked his face. The taut tips filled him to the brim with craven ecstasy. He gobbled them down as fast as he could before she took them away from him.

  Her soft mews tingled in his ears. She kept stroking his cock while he mangled her nipples between his teeth. She threw one bright leg over his black hips, and their flesh touched in cosmic unity.

  He would never lie still under her again. He strapped one arm around her waist and hoisted her into position. She slotted around him willingly. Her thighs fit over his hips, and she steered the cock in her hand between her legs.

  He grappled a handful of ass and crammed her down on top of him, but she would take her own sweet time. She still controlled his prick. She wound it between her dripping petals. She screwed it in circles to cover its engorged head with her juices. Her chest collapsed against him and blocked out his nose and mouth.